Bitcoin Forum

Why can't I see Bitcoin ATM machines spread worldwide, I can't get it, is it government related, or political agreements or what ?

because china banned bitcoin.

Ok, this is China, but what about other countries ?

Lol dude...much simpler....there are not enough producers. They all sell before they are produced. We will have to wait for production to catch up with demand, and of course for some local laws to change. But sooner or later, we will get there.

Pardon me, but producers of what exactly ?

Physical Bitcoins you mean ?

I think he means producers of the actual machines. There are only a handful of startups working on them.

There are a couple Lamassu Skyhook Bitaccess Robocoin
Just the rules around the ATM's may vary in different countries

Governments are all over the world.

US is a particular pain in the ass, but that's where a good bit of the investment money and legal strength is. It's in a few states, maybe some unlawfully, but it's not getting in all 50 states any time soon. The trouble there is they usually can't be actual ATMs, but have to be sold as a kind of one-way vending machine to avoid crippling security bonds, regulatory compliance, and licensing fees - all for a machine the size of a magazine.

Bitcoin ATMs are very expensive. The cheapest ones run around $5,000 and the more expensive ones cost upwards of $20,000.

If the ATM is one that disburses fiat then the operator would need to invest tens of thousands of dollars in fiat to be disbursed.

Depending on the agreement with the ATM seller the operator may need to invest money to have on an exchange to buy BTC when someone buying BTC with the ATM (customer deposits fiat into ATM, ATM operator automatically buys BTC on exchange, ATM operator automatically sends customer BTC to their address, ATM operator takes fiat out of ATM and deposits back into exchange).

You also have the regulatory and compliance environment that is not at all business friendly.

Bitcon ATMs are very profitable, it is just that operators need to invest a lot of money into them.

Yeah, and it's worth noting it's much cheaper (and probably profitable) to launch and maintain a bunch of kiosks or ATMs in one state than just with just a few machines. I think the Skyhook's actually down to something like $1k, though, fwiw. Their problem, though, is that right on their landing page is "Now you can be a Bitcoin exchange" - exactly what an operator doesn't want to see.

I mean - we have, what, one or two fully licensed BTC exchanges operating online with an "unlimited" customer base, yeah? -And they've been around for years.

Even if the ATM machines are that expensive, they will make profit on the long run.

Why I feel we are moving in baby steps towards this ?

Yes this. Production of machined needs to step up as they are too slow and too few.

Not easy to setup, find a good place and getting licence.

But it's not me who are going to install and setup a ATM machine.

What came into my mind is banks or other financial organizations.

Can't just a bank starts accepting and dealing with BTC and install machines like the normal ATM machines ?

Well apparently people are not that enthousiastic to place them everywhere, and apparently people still need to learn about bitcoin.
Time will learn my friends !

I'm not talking about normal people or even investors, I'm talking about financial organizations bro.

Because getting license is not as simple as one might think.

not many businesses operate in this niche. they will come, i am sure. but for now, it's a new niche, and rolling out a million bitcoin ATMs would be a very expensive and risky.

Why would it be risky ?

It would require large amount of money to produce ATM's and all that any country needs to do to shut them down is simple low level law. It wouldnt be risky for places where BTC is normal everyday stuff, but "whole world"....there are alot of undecided countries that can swing both ways.

For ATM manufactureres, it would be like gabling 50%/50%...no business operates like that.

What if we started by manufacturing one or two ATMs per country ?

And why it's gambling for ATM Manufactures ?

ATM manufacturers would have to produce the machines with special features that are not necessary for a "regular" ATM.

If one of many things were to stop the ATMs from being sold then the manufacturers would have paid to build something they cannot sell.

BTC ATMs are not like bitcoin miners where people line up to preorder. Or they may preorder BTC ATMs but they certainly would not be able to command full payment up front.